After its worst year in StarCraft 2, mousesports has decided to change.

by Waxangel

Quietly hidden amidst all of WCS system changes, player retirements, Jaedong silvers, and other storylines of 2013 was the decline of mousesports. Having been a part of the big-three of international teams alongside Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid since the beginning of StarCraft 2, 2013 was a year where mouz fell to the wayside, surpassed by teams like Axiom and Acer.

So, what happened? The short answer is that they simply suffered the same fate as the entire foreign scene: They lost to Koreans. In a year where Korean progamers won every single major tournament, it was little surprise that a team that defined itself as 'not-Korean' failed to keep up. Not when their competitors were being led by elite Koreans like TaeJa, INnoVation, and Jaedong.

And so, in a colossal signing, mouz acquired two-time WCS champion and top Korean Protoss Dear. mouz had bit the bullet, but they had their world class player.

As for the longer answer....


Back in May, mouz acquired the Spanish brothers VortiX and Lucifron, two of the top non-Korean players not signed to a "big" team. It was an obvious move for mouz, a team that had always been on the vanguard of the European scene. Starting with the mass acquisition of Brood War and WarCraft III players during the StarCraft 2 beta, mouz had rapidly built a reputation for finding and signing future European championships, with players like Morrow, Naama, ThorZaIN, and MaNa collecting silverware for the Germany-based team. Given the brothers' past success and high regard in Europe, few were surprised to see them become the newest players to don the crimson. Alongside some more speculative acquisitions in Illusion and hOpe, mouz was set for the future.

Or at least, it seemed so at the time. As it turned out, things just wouldn't pan out for mouz in 2013. Former ace MaNa saw his form drop harshly in HotS, going from championship caliber to middle-tier. Illusion and hOpe didn't quite work out as planned. Germans HasuObs and HeRoMaRinE were able to win domestic titles, but neither could make a splash in international competition. Worst of all, VortiX and Lucifron failed to pay off after looking like sure things at the time of signing. Top eight finishes were all that Lucifron could manage, whereas his brother did slightly better with a top four finish in WCS Europe. After winning multiple titles in the years past, mouz didn't even come close to sniffing a major championship in 2013.

On one hand, there seemed to be plenty of reason for mouz to stay the course. Getting wrecked by Koreans was pretty much the story for all foreigners in 2013, save a few like NaNiwa and Scarlett. Even the best prospectors don't always strike gold, and mouz could still have chalked it up as a decent year when comparing themselves to the foreigner field as a whole. There was also enough past precedent to be patient with the roster – after all ThorZaIN had taken almost a year to deliver a second major title (he delivered one immediately on signing, but only because he had been signed directly before the TSL3 finals), while MaNa took nearly two.

On the other hand, mousesports had to see the writing on the wall. With the Korean All-Kill of 2013's major events, there was no way to deny that the Korea-World skill gap was increasing. In a worrisome trend, the same standard-bearers of foreigner hope in 2012 – Stephano, NaNiwa, and Scarlett – continued to shoulder the burden in 2013. Few newcomers showed signs of being able to follow in their path. Not only that, but more Koreans were competing at foreign events than ever before. All the other foreign teams had one or more elite Koreans on their squads who received generous flight support, while the Koreans stuck on domestic teams had mastered the workings of online qualifiers and were ready to seize any opportunity. Winning a championship with a non-Korean roster had ceased to be a viable strategy.

In the end, mouz had to keep up with the Joneses. When asked for comment, mouz.Max, head coordinator of mousesport's SC2 division, said the following:

"We really liked the idea of being the only true foreign team who could compete in most tournaments. For most of the time it was very successful as well. But 2013 has shown that we can't go on with it forever. We had an eye on the Korean scene for the entire year and when we had the chance to sign Dear, we went for it. He perfectly fits into our general profile and our team. Dear was the number one on our list and our very first choice.

We want the best of both worlds, the Korean and the foreign community. This was no decision against the foreign scene or our European players. We won't abandon our hopes and goals for the foreign scene."


As Evil Geniuses' recent axing of Oz, aLive, and Revival reminds us, winning by itself is not especially important in esports. In such an industry, few teams made quietly winning as much a part of their identity as mouz. Though its players weren't without their own brand of unassuming charisma, mouz was never a PR machine like EG or Liquid. The fact that their players won, and won a lot, was a large part of what defined mousesports and made them notable in StarCraft 2. That, and the fact that they had no Koreans.

When push came to shove, mousesports could only preserve one part of their identity. They chose winning.

Writer: Waxangel.
Photos: Silverfire.
Editors: Antoine, DarkLordOlli and Waxangel.